Conferencing Phones for Digital Phone Systems from Nortel, Avaya, Siemans, Panasonic and All Other Brands.

Digital PhonesAlmost every business phone system is digital yet there is no standard for digital phones. Every phone system manufacturer builds their systems with a proprietary digital signalling language that they protect as intellectual property and consider to be copyright protected. This Is Why A Person Cannot Just Purchase A Digital Conference Speaker Phone That Would Work On Any System. Several years ago Polycom co-developed system-specific digital phones for the Nortel Meridian Option Series PBX, Avaya Definity PBX, and Lucent PBX with the permission and the assistance of their respective manufacturers. Polycom announced the end of these products in September of 2005. Don't worry though. This is a universal problem with multiple solutions.

Digital verses AnalogThe traditional speaker phone is analog. People hear analog. Digitizing voice means sampling a continuous signal and only passing a small percentage of the signal on. This process helps long distance calls because digital communications can be re-generated every so many miles while analog transmissions must be amplified as they cross the country. Noise that is picked up along the way is amplified too and eventually becomes more and more prevalent. Within an office the the signal does not need amplification so the digital advantage goes away.

Digital phones act as dumb terminals exchanging instructions with the phone system's processor (KSU or PBX Cabinet) which is really a specialized computer appliance. These instructions are coded into a proprietary language that is delivered through digital signalling. This allows you to have access to several lines, which are terminated at your KSU, while using just one pair of wire. Digital signalling allows a digital phone to have access to features that come from software on the KSU. It allows a person to move to the other side of their building and have their phone's customized feature settings moved there without actually moving the phone. These are important reasons for digital phones. Digital phones do not improve sound quality. Virtually all phone systems purchased in the past decade have been digital but since each model of phone system has its own secret digital signal language, Conference Phones have remained analog.

Konexx Konference

The Konexx Konference Konnector allows you to connect analog conference call units or direct-connect speakerphones to virtually any digital phone system by interfacing with the telephone handset of your existing digital phone.

Your phone vendor could install an analog station card in your phone system. Although this might cost over $1,000, it will provide you with up to 8 analog station ports. Your system may already have one. The Avaya Partner system uses analog lines so an adapter is not necessary. Finally, you could just install a dedicated line but you will lose the ability to transfer a call to or from the conference room.